Campaign of the Month:
August 2013

Dragons of Autumn

Sla-Mori and its army of walking corpses

session 12

18

MAR/12

After resting in the entry way of the Sla-Mori, the group proceeds into the musky and roughly cut passageways of the secret entrance to the tomb of Kith-Kanan. The group comes to a crossroads with moving air to the left, right, and entrance tunnels, but no air movement from the tunnel ahead. Almaia and Mora proceed down the tunnel ahead. The duo comes to another junction. A tunnel heads off to the left and the tunnel ahead continues for 15 feet before forking into two tunnels. To the right is a frieze of three hideous fiends. Almaia inspects the inset sculptures and discovers a trap! Almaia disables the trap which would seal the entrance to the tunnel ahead when triggered. Almaia and Mora return to the rest of the party at the first crossroads. Yelfis and Gilthanas inspect the tunnel to the left of the first crossroads. The duo discovers a light ahead and returns to the first crossroads to bring the rest of the group. The light ahead grows brighter as they approach to reveal an impressive and ancient hall lit through magical means. Giant 10 foot wide columns supports the tall ceilings. Although the hall survived the cataclysm, a corner of the hall did not and a single column lies in front of the partially caved-in corner. The end of the hall closest to the group is a raised platform upon which stand two massive stone statues of men holding great swords. Between the statues is an impressive throne where a decayed form sits wearing a crown, a sword lies across its lap. At the other end of the hall by the collapsed corner are a set of impressive stone doors. Almaia inspects the room and discovers that it was obviously built by dwarven craftsman and the collapsed corner could collapse further if agitated.
The rest of the group enters and examines the throned corpse. Gilthanas believes the corpse is that of Kith-Kanan, founder of the Qualinesti race and architect of Pax Tharkas. The group is apprehensive about disturbing the corpse, but Gilthanas insists that taking the sword for a higher purpose would not be considered desecration by his people. The elf noble steps up to the corpse of the elven king and retrieves the sword. Gilthanas insists on inspecting the sword through magical means. After an hour, Gilthanas reveals that the sword is known as Wyrmslayer. The powerful sword grants the wielder prowess in battle, especially against dragons. However, the sword reacts to the presence of dragons by emitting a loud noise to any dragon within 300 feet of the sword. Eben inquires if the audible effect could be countered by placing the sword in an extra-dimensional space. The group is startled that a human, especially a fighter, would even know of the existence of such an arcane item, let alone understand the properties of how they worked. Eben’s further inquiry into whether the companions possessed any of these rare magical items alarmed the group. Almaia and Donegin both have items that use extra-dimensional space, but these were items they quested for during the last four years of adventuring abroad. Gilthanas explains to Eben that extra-dimensional spaces are a means of storing more volume in a smaller area and not for blocking magical effects. The curious inquiries into arcane properties and group inventory alert the group that Eben may be more than what he appears.
Despite Eben’s insistence of expertise in the arcane over the party wizard (Gilthanas, the group decides to return Wyrmslayer to rest with Kith-Kanan until it is needed.
The group collects around the massive doors on the opposite side of the hall. It takes three group members to pull open the massive stone doors, but Almaia assures the group they are not locked or trapped. With the doors open, the group is exposed to a massive smell of must that reminds Almaia distinctively of a snail she came across in the wild. The group proceeds through the door in a 30 foot wide hallway. After about 50 feet, they notice huge slime trails along the left and right of the corridor. Suddenly, Eben throws his torch ahead. Was this to help them see or alert someone? Regardless, the torch promptly goes out as it lands in the huge slime trail. The brief glimpse of the remaining hallway reveals that it has completely collapsed. Undaunted, Almaia continues forward to investigate when suddenly a 20 foot high slug lurches forward from one of the dark corners and spits a glob of acid all over the dwarven rogue. Sizzling, Almaia retreats back to the group where Donegin creates water to douse the burning acid spit. The slug burst forward with a terrible speed and tramples Mora and Yelfis.
The group reels from the massive assault, but most of them were prepared for combat. The groups attacks do not seem to do very much damage to the huge monstrous slug except for slashing attacks. Eben suggests that they lead the slug to the collapsed corner in the ancient hall and start a cave-in. The group, still suspicious of their new companion, choose to attack the beast instead. In a very short amount of time, the slug bites and paralyzes Mora, Yelfis, and Eben. The remaining group has no choice but to retreat into the ancient hall. Gilthanas informs them that he has a spell prepared that may cause a cave-in if they follow Eben’s plan to lure the slug into that area. Kip begins waving his arms and hollering at the slug by the large stone door as Almaia and Gilthanas take position behind the fallen column. Donegin was unable to escape the hallway in time and stood as motionless as possible as the huge slug passed her and slithered toward Kip’s cajoling. After the slug passed leaving behind its stinky slime trail, Donegin rushed to her family members and their human companion to render aid.
Meanwhile, Kip dodges some acid spit from the slug as it pushes the second stone door open upon entering the ancient hall. Kip leads the slug to the collapsing corner and dives out of the way as Gilthanas triggers a cacophonous blast with his spell and creates a cave-in. As the dust settles, the slug cannot be seen beneath the rubble and the paralyzed party members eventually recover from the effects.
The group returns to the first crossroad passage and departs toward the second crossroads. Almaia travels ahead down the passage to the left (from the second crossroad) and begins to feel an unnatural cold. Almaia immediately retreats back to the second crossroad and dissuades the group from venturing that direction. Instead, the group takes the path ahead and follows the fork to the left. Almaia leads, searching for traps, and after traveling almost 300 feet discovers a pressure plate in the floor. She decides to leave the plate alone and guides the group around the trap. The group continues along the passage until it returns them to the demonic frieze. Almaia surmises that the pressure plate probably triggered the wall carving to seal off this passage to trap whoever was unlucky enough to set it off in an endless loop. The group decides to return to the first crossroads and take the path to the right.
After only about 60 feet, the path empties into a long hallway lined on either side by doors. Almaia inspects the first door to the right. It is unlocked and untrapped, but she hears shuffling behind the door. She activates her magical item to communicate with her family and suddenly the entire hallway fills with moans. Before the group can react, all of the doors open and walking corpses begin to advance!
The group is quickly surrounded by zombies who bite and tear at the group with endless vigor. The zombies prove to have to great a number to destroy and the group follows the lead of Kip in running to the other end of the hallway.
They get the door open and escape the flood of undead. They push the door shut behind them and run down a corridor lined with columns. The hallway opens to another great hall with two brass doors on either end of the far wall. The group heads for the door on the left as zombies begin crashing into the closed stone doors behind them.
The door opens into a narrow hallway; the group charges down the hallway toward another brass door. Almaia and Yelfis lead the group walking side by side when they suddenly hear a ‘click’ and the floor disappears beneath them. Yelfis plummets 50 feet into the pit trap as Almaia jumps backwards and avoids the fall; he loses consciousness upon impact.Almaia uses her ring of featherfall to slowly descend into the pit and uses her healing belt to wake Yelfis. They climb up a rope Gilthanas lowered and join the group back into the great hall.
As the door opens, the group witnesses the far side of the hall filled with zombies. The zombies turn and begin rushing the group. The group dashes for the other brass door and closes it behind them. The door leads to an identical narrow hallway, except the far end of the hallway has neither a pit trap nor a brass door. Almaia frantically searches the dead-end as the zombies begin forcing the door open at the far end. She runs her hand along an unmortared crevice along the wall and feel a latch. She flips the switch and the wall slides to the side. The group charges the egress as the zombies break through the door and narrowly miss Kip who brings up the rear. The dead milky eyes and gnashing teeth of the oncoming attackers disappear as Almaia slides the secret door closed.